Architect Archive
Thread: How do you guys do it?
I'll admit, I got this profession because a holo told me to, but please don't hate me for it, and I'll tell you why. I was almost master BH, and to be honest combat was getting so stale I was praying for a crafting profession ( I didn't drop it before because I didn't want to drop it and have the holo tell me to master it). I was pretty excited when I got master architect from the holo, because I wanted to climb the tree and do it right you know? actually BE an architect, not just grind and drop it, play the game and join the people, make new friends etc.
Well I spent my first day grinding through artisan, no biggie then I got novice architect, woohoo! After a week I'm starting experience a few of the problems I'm sure you guys have noticed. I can't GIVE away the things I make! Everyone wants a large house, and I can't make them until I get buildings 4, I can't find anyone to buy factories, because everyone wants to wait for the patch, and even then they want one from a master. I watch someone shell out 150k for a gun and flat out refuses to pay 10k for a house. This is assuming they need one because after a few months in game thousands of houses have been made and they almost never are destroyed so just about everyone already has one! Don't even get me started on that set of rusty boxes SOE calls furniture, I'm not even a builder in RL and I can make something without huge rust spots dripping down the side and no one wants to buy that stuff. All of this is assuming I have the resources to even build something. I hunt around forever and can't get any good ore, always around 50%, which gives a terrible extraction rate, for one of the resources most used in the game!
But now I am stuck, I have no creds, no resources, a bunch of crap I can't sell, and nothing to do. So now that you know the backstory my question is: How do you guys do it? how do you make it as an architect?
i made a name for my architect business long before i was in a guild. My guild cant even begin to support the resources i use up in one week. and i only have one account.
my suggestions to you are,
- figure out what it costs you to build stuff and dont let anyone talk you down further than that price. (ever)
- if they dont understand your (supposedly high) prices explain why they are that way, tell them what it takes to build what they want, the more they understand the ore willing they are to spend that much
- be helpfull with all your customers make sure they know what they are buying and its limitations, (many new crafters dont realize what kind of factory they need just that they need one, lots of people dont understand the pull rates on harvesters or item limits in houses.) in short, know your products so you can throughly answer any questions, the more you can tell them the more comfortable they are buying from you, that creates repeat busniess.
- display your archtect title, this alone will get you business from people who just search for one when they need stuff or see you running buy in town. (i have to make my char unsearchable and take down my title in major cities now or i get tell bombed for orders)
- Find a supplier on your server, i had houses and installations 1 when i found mine, we were both just starting out, they brought me resources to build harvestors and paid my profits in resources eventually they had plenty of harvestors and extended a line of credit, i'd get big orders with no way to get materials up front for them so they fronted me till i got paid. most suppliers will do this for established customers or architects who's name is known.
- untill you have established your self with a customer base and a known name you'll need combat skills for money, sadly that's just how it is.
- merchant skills help too, keep it stocked with little things people want from you as well as a price list and how to reach you for orders, when your in town spread the word of your vendor.
anyway that's just my 2credits =)
What you should do is try to find some established masters with a thriving business (they DO exist) and see if they'll buy wall modules that you grind out for 5-9k.At the average price of 7.5k I've seen that's more than enough to pay for your harvesters and put a few credits in your pocket while you XP your way up the skill trees. Wall module production is very tedious for masters because factories won't produce them as intended so many will buy wall modules just to avoid the annoyance of having to make walls themselves.
It is possible to do well and get rich as an architect even without borrowing lots or a large guild subsidizing you. You must develop business relationships with reliable resource sellers at a mutually beneficial price and find a niche that suits you whether that is furniture, crafting stations, harvesters, homes, supplying other architects with components, or a combination of them. You don't need a guild, but it's not a solo class either as you must develop relationships with resource sellers usually to succeed.
you canoffer wall modules to the vendor in my shop for 6900creds (thats 2.3cpu). any quantities. ithink that helps you.
if you need better harvesters ore just better expermiented light ore mining units, mail me in game.
name: victimizer
Shop location: Tatooine - north of Mos Entha (2061 4037)
Listen to Ninachuu.
Spamming at starports, you are not going to get the prices and the sales you want/need. I cannot KEEP medium houses in stock on my vendor at 80k each. Im sick of making the darn things but I like to have all houses available for sale so people know they can just pop in and get one.
The best way to the top, in terms of skillgain, money gain, and learning the business is to work for a master architect. A good master architect who has some business sense at that.
Quit grinding out deeds that are hard as heck to sell on the street. My deeds fly off my vendor, but then im an established architect who's vendor is placed in a high traffic area near Theed spaceport. When i was a novice, i couldn't sell anything on the street to save my life, much less my harvesters.
Basically, sell walls. Advertise that you are selling walls on your server board, or ask master architects in game if they would like to buy from you. We HATE making walls (well at least i do, but i think its universal). This will allow you to meet with master architects and maybe find an apprenticeship with one of them.
What I do with my apprentices:
- architect training whenever they need it
- pay 8k for each wall they make from their own materials
- pay 2200 ore 800 metal per wall they make from their own materials (this allows them to make the wall again for more xp).
- advice on pricing, how to handle lowball customers etc.
- occasionally give them my materials to grind walls out with if they have none of their own
I was very lucky when i started out.. After selling a ton of walls for 6k each I finally happened upon a great master architect, who taught me that architecting CAN be profitable. From all i have read on these boards I thought I was going to lose money and go bust. Yes many architects do, but this guy really showed me the ropes and I will always be grateful for that. I apprenticed for him, selling him the walls I made from my own materials each day then grinded out tons more for him from the materials he provided for me. I watched how he ran his business and learned a lot while i sat there crafting in his shop.
When I mastered architect, I had 1M in the bank nearly. Was very good capital to get started with. I don't mine myself anymore. I buy all my materials. I keep my prices high and because I can meet large orders in a short amount of time, I get my prices. I have a team of dedicated miners who bring me materials everyday. Dont despair, yes its a long road to master if you try to mine the 700k materials yourself and stand on the street corner selling small houses. Try to find a master to learn from and work for 
Its the ideal situation. And yes there is money in architecting, even if you don't have a PA to back you, but you need really good business sense and you need to never let your prices come down no matter what people might say. They aren't the kind of customers you would want anyways if they don't value your time and skill in architecting for them.
The other posts regarding selling walls is great advice. Also, search for Master Architects, and ask to become a student. Some will be willing to give you resources to grind out walls for them, but there's no pay in it. You're just making walls for someone else with their resources.
Aeiya -Master Architect-Wanderhome
StPhil wrote:
This profession is designed for someone with multiple accounts or a lot of PA support. Trying to make it as a solo architect just isn't going to happen with 10 lots and no help UNLESS you're able to get in on the ground floor or there's no other architects on your server.
Isolo'd from start to finishin under two months from launch without any guild, RL friends, or more than 10 lots...
And how am I rewarded? I'm still waiting to find out...
To the original poster:
Maybe the best thing to do is to finda mentor and make Generator Turbines and Wall Modules for them in exchange for the resources it takes to make them. Then, if you don't critically fail ever, you can get to Buildings IV and start selling large houses at cost! Then people will buy what you can make and you can start crying when you're 45% carbonate ore just shifted out and you can only find some 23% Extrusive will 117 UT...
This profession is hell, and I wish that the Devs dropped Architect'because it wasn't fun enough' and kept Miner and Farmer in... Then I could have enjoyed my first choice profession.
I've been able to make a decent set of credits by being a solo Architect. I was fortunate enough to stumble upon a nice guild (TAC on Wanderhome) who came to me with all their requests. It was quite the relationship - they really helped spread the word for me.
I agree, find a Master Architect and whip him up some walls. That's the best way to do make profit until you get the two good trees (installations and housing).
Be prepared, though, it does take quite alot of resources to keep it all going. You can't walk through any starport without getting hit up for requests of some kind once you hit Master Architect.
In my opinion, it's one of the more fun classes, because you actually can walk around this galaxy and see your handiwork. Sure, they all look the same - but there's a certain sense of pride when I walk through whole cities knowing I built all the buildings.
You dont need multipule accounts, that is garbage. You do need socialazation skills.
Find a master archetect that is willing to buy walls from you, then build walls non-stop for XP. Make the master architect a good deal, sell them to him fairly cheap.
You can also barter with the walls for better equiopment, A master architect will be glad to take walls instead of cash on some transactions.
StPhil wrote:Welcome to Hell.
This profession is designed for someone with multiple accounts or a lot of PA support.
Respectively disagree. Two weeks, casual play, time off to run missions, almost at master arch. (Which I don't intend to keep, because I had to drop skills I wanted. I've come far enough I might as well finish it. Maybe make myself some nice furniture before I drop it.)
1) Build/buy some dirt-cheap mediums. BER 4 is fine. Or buy BER 6/7 mediums. Build/buy two solars. Drop a medium on some 70% of any metal.
2) Mine ore. You will not succeed as an architect if you pay for ore.
3) Wait for a spawn of a new type of ore. Plunk mediums down on 50%+ vein of ore. (Spend an hour or two surveying). Load up with maintenance/power.
4) Go shoot stuff for a while. Finish the Warren. Run missions. Ignore the harvesters.
5) A couple of days later, you'll have some (20-30K) ore. Commence grinding of bricks.
6) Build bricks, make bricks into wall modules. Rack up XP. Work up the Construction tree first to make better extraction units (higher BER on your harvesters).
7) Turn wall modules into higher-rate mediums or heavy harvesters. The cheapest harvester in the game is the one you build yourself for 20000 units of various stuff.
8) Build your own fleet of heavies. Look around on the forums to find out what heavies are worth. Sell for that price, give or take 5%. Put an "Installation Designer" tag over your head and you'll get a /tell every few hours from someone who needs a heavy. Sell 'em one. Or trade it for a pile of ore. (If your heavies are worth 120K, and ore is worth 3cpu, you can offer to trade a heavy for 40000 ore. That's enough ore for you to build two or three heavies. Maybe the guy only has 10K ore on him - so sell the heavy for 90K and 10K ore.)
9) Repeat with your own heavies instead of mediums. I pulled 30000 ore a day with 7 harvesters on a half-decent spot. Once I set it up, all I had to do was log in for 10 minutes to make sure ore hadn't despawned. (I spent three days getting to know my alt on another server, then returned to my architect and ground up most of the rest of the tree.)
yatch
when you come over tonite ill show you my ore spot its decent 54 i think
semi crappy ore
maybe ill get you to make me some walls too
also make sure people know a factory made by a novice 1 boxer and one made by a master is the exact same...same thing for houses
only harvesters have the benefit of experimentation
and yes i know the hopper size on the deeds for factories say theyre higher but there not
i got a huge hopper on the deed of both of my factories and it still only holds 100 items
-b
Welcome to Hell.
This profession is designed for someone with multiple accounts or a lot of PA support. Trying to make it as a solo architect just isn't going to happen with 10 lots and no help UNLESS you're able to get in on the ground floor or there's no other architects on your server.
Some people like it more now with experimentation, but that really makes it even worse and MORE difficult for newbies like yourself. So my best advice is to use your combat skills to get lots of credits, buy lots of low quality resources, and just grind and drop it. It really isn't any fun unless you're playing for a specific goal (player cities, PA harvester suppliers, just love seeing you buildings all over the place).
-Phal